Reversing Schizophrenia with Orthomolecular Medicine

The late Canadian Doctor Abram Hoffer MD PhD helped almost 10,000 schizophrenics heal, improve and even be cured, yes cured, with something called Orthomolecular Therapy. That’s the practice of administering mega doses of vitamins to reverse disease.

His success rate was 85%.

Hoffer used niacin (b3). For example, someone would take 3g of B3, 3g of Vitamin C and eliminate food allergens (gluten, dairy, corn, etc).

Food Allergies & Reversing Schizophrenia

I recently met Dr Eric Paterson MD from Creston, BC who has been healing people of schizophrenia since 1973.

One of his first cases: a 14 year old boy had developed schizophrenic symptoms.

He wanted to see if he had allergies so he first put him on a water fast for 5 days and then slowly added food back into his diet to see if he had any reactions.

After the 6th day, the boy’s symptoms were inflamed and he found out that he had eaten a single red Smartie from his brother.

His parents said that before he developed symptoms, he ate many red freezies.

Dr Paterson found that he was allergic to red dye #A2.

He gave him 3g B3, 3g Vitamin C, a strict no sugar or refined carb diet, and told him to stay away from any artificially red food.

The student recovered, became captain of his rugby team and now is a lawyer with kids in BC.

This field is exceptionally exciting in terms of what can be done on top of a raw food diet – adding mega-doses of natural supplements can literally reverse disease.

This is the tip of the iceberg as far as Orthomolecular Therapy goes – find out more by visiting http://www.orthomed.org/

 

 

How to grow new capillaries

Bottom line: intense endurance training can lead to more & healthier capillaries, which leads to more nutrients being delivered to your tissues, keeping you younger, longer.

Join one of our spring retreats and get plenty of exercise outdoors in the fresh, warm Blue Mountain air.

Coming up:

Philip McCluskey’s Juice Fast Retreat – May 5-8 or 5-11
Eva Sue Wah Sing’s Fight Cancer w/ Foods Retreat – June 3-5
Marni Wasserman’s Spring Cleanse Retreat – June 26-30

Give us a call at 1-800-252-2826 to book a spot.

Hope you’re enjoying the winter!

How to naturally whiten eyes

We all notice how young people have spectacularly white eyes, and how each passing year seems to make them a touch more yellow.

There is a chemical reason behind this, and “yellowing” of the eyes can be ameliorated.

Why our eyes change colour with age

A chemical reaction called The Maillard Reaction is responsible for this decolouration. This reaction happens when heat is applied to food, and glucose binds to proteins, forming abnormally tight complexes called advanced glycoxidation end products (AGEs).

This reaction is what gives food its flavour, colour, and texture. For example, the Maillard reaction is what is responsible for plain bread becoming golden-brown toast.

A build-up of AGEs leads to the lens crystallines (the lens situated behind the iris) to become progressively yellow-brown pigmented with age, a result of the Maillard reaction.1

The following foods need the Maillard reaction in order to become their edible forms:

• Toasted bread
• Malted barley as in malt whiskey or beer
• Roasted or seared meat
• Roasted coffee

So, eating too much food containing advanced glycoxinated end-products accelerates the process of our white eyes becoming yellow.

How to naturally whiten your eyes:

• Cut back on refined carbs, and eat more whole grains.
• Do not over-cook your food. Raw, steamed, and boiled is always better than fried and barbecued.
• Choose whiskey and beer less often.
• Cut back on coffee slowly.
• Make sure that every meal has at least 50% raw vegetables and fruits.

Sources:

1. F. Tessier, “Structure and Mechanism of Formation of Human Lens Fluorophore LM-1,” J Biol Chem 274(30):20796-20804 (July 23, 1999)
2. Victoria Boutenko, Author
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction

How I reversed my gray hair – without being 100% raw

I went 70% raw vegan overnight from being a SAD eater, eating maybe 5% raw. Maybe less.

Over the first year, I noticed tremendous benefits: self esteem shooting up, weight loss, a mysterious lump in my back disappeared which had been there since I was 10.

But I still had grays. I would pull them out when I found’em.

Then I started drinking 1 litre of green juice every day. Here’s what happened in 4 weeks:

• My hair grew at double the rate (I calculated the measurement given the time)
• My hair became visibly shinier
• A half-inch of my grays were my natural chestnut brown at the root.
• Between the gray tip and the brown root was an orange/copper inch. Perhaps a transitional period?
• Since then, every time I find a gray, it is followed by a dark root growing in

I’m not 100% raw all the time. In fact, all of this happened when I was still eating cooked vegan food.

Here’s an example of what I put into organic green juice:

• 1 whole bunch of dark leafy greens. Ex. Kale, spinach, chard, etc.
• 1 english cucumber (interchanged with celery)
• 1 apple or orange
• 1 lemon
• 1 thumb ginger

Here’s a shot of a hair in transition I found last week:

We can help you with your grays too – join Philip McCluskey‘s juice feast at the House of Verona in Blue Mountain, Ontario, in May 2011.

Book this retreat before December 25th and receive a complimentary $30 gift card to The Big Carrot or Whole Foods – a perfect stocking stuffer – call 1-800-252-2826.

How to reverse wrinkles using food (and only food)

I visited my doctor this week and noticed some brochures about botox, microdermabrasion, and restylane fillers. I asked the resident aesthetician if she thought it was possible to reverse wrinkles using food only, and she replied, “No. There’s no way. Fillers are the only way.”

I have to respect that she’s trying to make a living, but since I personally know several women who indeed have reversed their wrinkles using only specific food choices, I thought I’d post about how one can do this at home, using a grocery store in place of a needle.

Why are wrinkles caused?

Our skin has 3 layers: epidermis on top, dermis, and subcutaneous tissue underneath.

The dermis contains the structural elements of the skin, the connective tissue. Collagen is one protein that is a type of connective tissue which gives the skin its strength. Elastin fibres are another type, which lends to elasticity.

Where the dermis and epidermis meet is where connective tissue delivers nutrients from blood vessels to the epidermis. The stronger the connective tissue, the more nutrients reach the skin, giving it a youthful appearance.

As we age, less collagen is produced by the body, and the elastin fibres wear out. The connective tissues weaken without a diet high in minerals. These changes in the scaffolding of the skin cause tiny sags, which are wrinkles. Other factors leading to breaking down our body’s collagen are the sun, pollution, free radicals, and toxins.

Imagine it as a building that has pillars keeping the roof up: if the pillars weaken over time and the roof starts to sink, the thing to do would be to rebuild the pillars – we wouldn’t put something on top of the roof to fix the pillar. So, anti aging serums and creams fill in the holes temporarily, but cannot restore the youthful plumpness, stretched look, and elasticity for the long term.

Many people are starting to discover this and reverse their wrinkles themselves, at home, simply by instituting a simple change in nutrition.

Foods & minerals that erase wrinkles

1. Sulfur-residue foods

Sulfur-residue foods contain enzymes that help keep the skin flexible and the collagen strong, rebuilding it and protecting it from damage. Many people are deficient in sulfur because it’s extremely volatile: it’s either evaporated or destroyed by cooking.

Sulfur-residue foods:

• Bee pollen
• Cabbage
• Hot peppers
• Broccoli
• Garlic
• Horseradish
• Radish
• Kale
• Onions
• Pumpkin seeds
• Spirulina
• Watercress

2. Foods containing the mineral Silicon

Silicon maintains the strength and elasticity of cell walls and connective tissue. It directly aids in the regeneration of tissues, and thus makes a direct impact on the skin’s wrinkles.

Sources of Silicon:

• Radishes
• Romaine lettuce
• Burdock root (can be consumed as a tea)
• Cucumber skin
• Bell pepper skin
• Tomato skin
• Young leafy greens
• Steel cut oats
• Barley
• Spinach
• Bananas
• Apricots
• Nettles
• Red lentils

3. Foods containing the mineral Zinc

Zinc is essential for skin beauty. It promotes cell repair and growth, and is a key member of a group of enzymes that helps to maintain its collagen supply.

Without zinc, the enzymes that rebuild new collagen do not function properly.

In addition to preventing wrinkles, Zinc also prevents and aids in the healing of stretch marks, cellulite, and other outward signs of aging.

Great Zinc sources:

• Poppy seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Pine nuts
• Cashews
• Macadamia nuts
• Sesame seeds
• Young coconuts (“old” ones are the brown ones we see in regular stores, and won’t do. “Young” ones can be purchased from Asian markets).

We highly recommend that these foods are eaten raw, since heating foods over 118°F causes the enzymes to be denatured, and destroys 50% to 80% of the nutrients.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

Sources:

• Dr. Heather Brannon, MD
• Dr. Gabriel Cousens, MD
• Jessica Moore, Registered Holistic Nutritionist
• Eating for Beauty, by David Wolfe, Nutritionist
• Victoria Boutenko, Author, Green for Life, and a woman who reversed her wrinkles naturally
• Cambridge University Press: A provisional database for the silicon content of foods in the United Kingdom http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=924600

How a 72-year-old stays looking 40

Guest Author Kristen Mehendale is a Holistic Nutritionist in Toronto, Ontario. View her website at http://www.kristenmehendale.com and follow her on Twitter @HappyCellsKM.

How milk initiates diabetes

This week, we’re featuring a very compelling excerpt from The China Study, an acclaimed book written by Dr Colin Campbell (who grew up on a dairy farm). The New York Times called it “the grand prix of epidemiological research.”

Start of excerpt:
–
In the case of type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks the pancreas cells responsible for producing insulin.

What most people don’t know, though, is that there is strong evidence that this disease is linked to dairy products.

The ability of cow’s milk protein to initiate type 1 diabetes is well documented. The possible initiation of this disease goes like this:

• A baby is not nursed long enough and is fed cow’s milk protein, perhaps in an infant formula
• The milk reaches the small intestine, where it is digested down to its amino acid parts
• For some infants, cow’s milk is not fully digested, and small amino acid chains or fragments of the original protein remain in the intestine
• These incompletely digested protein fragments may be absorbed into the blood
• The immune system recognizes these fragments as foreign invaders and goes about destroying them
• Unfortunately, some of the fragments look exactly the same as the cells of the pancreas that are responsible for making insulin
• The immune system loses its ability to distinguish between the cow’s milk protein fragments and the pancreatic cells, and destroys them both, thereby eliminating the child’s ability to produce insulin
• The infant becomes a type 1 diabetic and remains so for the rest of his or her life [editor's note: find out how some people have reversed type 1 diabetes through diet here.]

This process boils down to a truly remarkable statement: cow’s milk may cause one of the most devastating diseases that can befall a child.

For obvious reasons, this is one of the most contentious issues in nutrition today.

[...]

A study in Chile considered the first two factors, cow’s milk and genes. Genetically susceptible children weaned too early onto cow’s milk-based formula had a risk of type 1 diabetes that was 13.1 times greater than children who did not have these genes and who were breast-fed for at least 3 months (thus minimizing their exposure to cow’s milk).

Another study in the U.S. showed that genetically susceptible children fed cow’s milk as infants had a risk of the disease that was 11.3 times greater than children who did not have these genes and who were breast-fed for at least three months. [...] anything over 3 to 4 times is usually considered very important.

To put this into perspective, smokers have approximately ten times greater risk of getting lung cancer, and people with high blood pressure and cholesterol have a 2.5-3.0 times greater risk of heart disease.

– End of Excerpt

Find another excerpt of the book on The China Study’s website.

It’s never, ever too late

We’ve met plenty of women at the House of Verona who are in their 50s and just did their first Triathlon this summer. They have a day job, kids, a cottage, and some of them never joined a single sport growing up.

How cumin prevents wrinkles

The University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at a University in India recently found that ingesting cumin immediately after being exposed to UV rays significantly prevented photoaging to the skin.

Photoaging is simply skin aging, which induces wrinkles, leathery skin, collagen damage, age spots, and cancer due to exposure to the sun.

The researchers studied what happened to the skin of mice when exposed to UV rays and then immediately ingested cumin capsules, compared with those who received a topical cream mixed with cumin. The cream did not significantly change the results; however, ingesting cumin significantly prevented the formation of lesions and other damage. (Please note that the House of Verona does not advocate the exploitative use of animals in medical testing when harm is incurred.)

Here are some of the favourite raw food recipes from the House of Verona kitchen which incorporate cumin:

Raw vegan sprouted hummus recipe

Ingredients

1 handful sprouted chickpeas
2 tbsp raw tahini
4 tbsp soaked sesame seeds (optional, but gives it a calcium boost)
Half a zucchini
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp hemp or flax oil
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp cumin
Sea or rock salt

Combine in a food processor [or blender, but add some water to start the process] and serve.

Raw vegan falafel recipe

Ingredients

1 handful sprouted chickpeas
2 handfuls soaked walnuts (any other nut or seed can be substituted)
Half an onion
1 clove garlic
Quarter bunch of parsley
Quarter bunch of cilantro
Quarter cup tahini
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp hemp or flax oil
1 tbsp cumin
Sea or rock salt

Combine in a food processor [or blender, but add some water to start the process], form into balls and serve.

Raw vegan Moroccan vegetables

Ingredients

Half head broccoli
1 bunch bok choy
4 stalks celery
Half head cauliflower
Handful soaked seaweed of choice (ex. wakame or arame)
4 tbsp hemp or flax oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp curry powder
1 clove garlic
Dash of your sweetener of choice
Half a handful of raisins
4 black mission figs, quartered
Fistful of chopped mint leaves
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp cinnamon

For the sauce, combine the cinnamon, cayenne, sweetener, garlic, curry powder, cumin, lemon and oil into the bottom of a large bowl and let it marinate while you wash and chop the other vegetables.

Chop the broccoli, bok choy, celery, cauliflower, mint, and figs. Throw them into the bowl along with the raisins and seaweed. Combine and serve.

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20426620

http://www.skincancer.org/what-is-photoaging.html

How chlorophyll inhibits cancer

The link between chlorophyll and cancer has been studied in the scientific community since the early 1900s, and studies consitently show that it has powerful anti-cancer properties.

Most recently, the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University found that chlorophyll provided significant protection against a very potent carcinogen called DBP (found in nail polish) in pregnant mice. Chlorphyll also reduced lung cancer multiplicity by 50% (Source).

Another recent study from the same university found that chlorophyll greatly reduced the expression of human colon cancer cells (Source).

One of the easiest ways to obtain natural chlorophyll is to consume fresh, organic dark leafy greens in liquid form.

Although greens can have a bitter taste, there are many ways to prepare them raw in a way that’s palatable. If you’ve never done this before, a great starting point is Nutritionist Meghan Telpner CNP’s Green Smoothie Cleanse. It’s packed with 100 pages of tremendously valuable information, and definitely provided me with a boost of health inspiration when I read it. Meghan is also running a group cleanse starting on August 6th where her and her staff will provide support along the way.